


Giving Thanks

by Tarlan



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Community: fanfic100, Community: mcsheplets, M/M, Plot What Plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-10-18
Updated: 2009-10-18
Packaged: 2017-10-21 06:32:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/221996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/pseuds/Tarlan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rodney is given a Thanksgiving to remember.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Giving Thanks

**Author's Note:**

> For **McSheplets** #56 Post-series and **fanfic100** #93 Thanksgiving

Rodney had attended enough thanksgiving ceremonies over the past few years on various planets that another should not have been too much of a worrying experience, except this one was on Earth. In the past, the official Canadian Thanksgiving was simply a day where he could have the laboratory mostly to himself. No one bothered to try to restrict access because not everyone acknowledged the day for whatever reason, be it lack of family or simple cultural differences.

Jeannie had invited him. With Atlantis currently floating in the San Francisco bay, he could hardly refuse to go, especially as she had implied that he still owed her big time over the whole Wallace and the nanites affair.

 _Bring John with you,_ she had said but Rodney could recognize an order when he heard it from his sister.

Convincing John to go with him was not going to be easy as the man seemed to shun family interactions with a passion that surpassed even Rodney's. Still, if Jeannie wanted John Sheppard at her Thanksgiving meal then John Sheppard was going to go even if Rodney had to get General O'Neill to order him there. Either that or maybe Rodney could set John up with Daniel's lecture course on the difference between religious and cultural festivals as pertaining to the denizens of two galaxies. Daniel had arranged the series of presentations for the sociologists and anthropologists over the next week, and that ought to be enough to send anyone running to Canada. But first, he'd give John the opportunity to say, "Yes", without duress.

"Thanksgiving?" John looked at him askance, eyes narrowed in distrust. Rodney nodded. "At your sister's," he deadpanned.

"Yes." Rodney raised his chin and crossed his arms. "Jeannie invited both of us."

John stared hard at him for seconds that seemed to drag into infinity before relaxing suddenly. "Okey, dokey."

Rodney blinked hard, confused. "Is that a yes?"

John was already walking away but he threw a close-mouthed smile over his shoulder before stepping into the transporter, leaving Rodney feeling strangely deflated, having expected to have a fight on his hands. He froze in thought. Unless Sheppard was simply lulling him into a false sense of victory and was now halfway across the Milky Way by Puddlejumper. Quickly, he stepped into the transporter and only then realized he had no idea where to go. His finger hovered between the Jumper bay, the gate room and the mess. With a sigh, he realized he'd not be able to stop John anyway, so he tapped for the mess. He needed coffee...and cake.

Arriving on Jeannie's door step two days later, he gained a bright smile of welcome before Jeannie's eyes narrowed as she peered around him. Rodney bristled because he knew she was looking for John, making him almost wish he'd left Captain _John_ Kirk behind. She was a married woman...and she was his sister! Her smile came back wider when she spotted John walking up the path; he dropped their bags at Rodney's feet.

"John! So glad you could come."

"Hey! What about me?"

She smacked his arm in what looked like annoyance. "You're my brother," she stated, as if that answered anything. She looped her arm through John's and walked him into her house, leaving Rodney on the door step to follow on behind with the bags. Rodney dropped them in the hallway and peered around the corner of the door frame to check out the living room, relieved when he saw only Kaleb and Madison. He'd had a horrible suspicion that he'd walk into a full house of Kaleb's relatives, and as he'd never met any of them after refusing to go to Jeannie's wedding, it would have been more than a little awkward.

Kaleb gave him a strange look before sighing and holding out his hand in greeting. Even so it took a nudge from John before Rodney stumbled forward to accept the handshake. The last time he had seen Kaleb, his brother-in-law's eyes had been filled with accusation and anger over Jeannie's abduction. Hopefully, the Prius sitting on the drive had gone a little way to appease him. Not that it was Rodney's fault anyway. How was he to know the SGC had a major security breach within their communications system? He'd fixed that as soon as he got back to the SGC after the kidnapping.

The next few days went surprisingly quickly and with none of the dreaded awkwardness that Rodney had anticipated. Perhaps it was mingling with the likes of Daniel and Carson that had made it easier to talk to Kaleb. Or maybe it was because he mostly stayed on the edge of the conversation while Kaleb and John discussed various authors from Tolstoy to Jane Austen. As he listened to John, he realized why John got on so well with Daniel. Perhaps threatening him with Daniel's lectures would not have worked after all.

On the last evening, Rodney retired to the guest room he was sharing with John, leaving John behind in the living room with Jeannie and Kaleb. Their bags were mostly packed, ready for an early start in the morning and he slowly stripped, pushing each removed item into his bag in a habit formed from several years on away missions. John stepped into the room as Rodney was pulling on the worn and comfortable t-shirt that he liked to sleep in. As his head popped through the neck hole, he saw John look away abruptly with a tight expression that implied a little guilt. Guilt over what, though? Rodney thought.

John sank onto his side of the bed they'd been forced to share and began to pull off his socks. He threw them towards his bag and then stopped to stare at Rodney. It took a moment before Rodney noticed.

"What?"

"Why did you invite me along?"

"Jeannie told me. Not that I wouldn't have wanted you here," he added quickly.

"Jeannie?"

"Um...yes."

"Not Keller."

"What? Why would Jennifer invite you to my sister's for--"

"I meant Jeannie invited me...not Keller. Your girlfriend." He narrowed his eyes. "Does she know about Keller?"

"Does she? Of course! Why wouldn't she know about..?" Rodney let the words filter through. John was right. Jeannie knew all about his relationship with Jennifer. They'd even met for a second time not so long ago--under better circumstances than when he'd had a parasite in his brain--when Rodney took Jennifer to Tunney's presentation. He had to admit that, on reflection, Jeannie had seemed a little cool towards Jennifer. She'd grilled her for over an hour before Rodney insisted he and Jennifer had to leave or risk missing their lift back to Atlantis on the _Daedalus_. When he thought about it, Jeannie had never mentioned Jennifer in any of her correspondence even though Rodney had mentioned he was in a real relationship with Jennifer now.

Rodney stomped down the stairs, knowing Jeannie and Kaleb were still in the living room.

"Why didn't you invite Jennifer?"

Jeannie's eyes widened a fraction. "You've been here three days, Mer."

He shook his head, confused. "And that has relevance how exactly?"

"Three days. In that time you've mentioned her name once."

"I'm sure I've mentioned her--"

Kaleb spoke up. "Once. At the table on Thanksgiving. You mentioned she'd have a fit if she saw you taking seconds on dessert."

"Really?"

Jeannie's face softened. "You rarely mention her in emails."

"I mention her all the time!" He flapped his hands as if to illustrate exactly how much he talked about her.

"Not as much as you talk about John," Jeannie stated softly. "It's all John did this, John did that."

"I'm..." Rodney drew his shoulders back. "What are saying here?"

Jeannie's face softened. "Oh Mer. I'm sure Jennifer is a lovely person but she's not in love with _you_ and you're not in love with her. She's in love with the person she would like you to be...but we both know that's not going to happen. You're... You're _YOU_ , Mer. And I wouldn't change that for the world." Her eyes flicked to something behind him. "And neither would John."

He pointed at her accusingly. "You were the one that told me to take what I could get! If I remember correctly, you said, _You're no John Sheppard_." He made the necessary air-quotes.

Jeannie had the good grace to look embarrassed. "And I was wrong about Katie, but I know I'm right about Jennifer." She looked over his shoulder again. "And John."

"John?"

Jeannie stepped up and took Rodney's hands, stilling the frantic movement just as she used to do when they were younger; he gazed back at her in confusion.

"Guess I still need to keep hitting you with the clue stick," she said softly before taking a deep breath. "When that parasite robbed you of..of most everything, the one person you remembered and trusted, the one person you said you loved, over and over, was John. Not Jennifer. When all else was gone, even me," she sighed raggedly. "You still held onto John." She seemed to give him a moment to let that sink in. "Jennifer was wrong to latch onto that one lucid confession of love for her and ignore all the rest of the videos. As you deteriorated, you lost more inhibitions and told everyone you cared about that you loved them...Teyla, Ronon, me, and even Radek... and then slowly forgot all of them except for John. He's the one you love, and who loves you back unconditionally."

She gazed over his shoulder and Rodney just knew John was standing behind him; her eyes blazed as if daring John to deny it, and he didn't.

Rodney spun out of her grip to face John, who was hovering on the threshold. "You knew all this and said nothing?" John pulled a face. "No, of course you didn't. So when were you going to tell me? In a dying confession? Or were you going to take that to your grave." John licked his lips nervously. Rodney's eyes widened and he stabbed a finger into John's chest. "You were!"

"Hey!" John rubbed at his abused chest.

Rodney jabbed him again. "Don't you _hey_ me!" With anger and hurt stomping on his better judgment, Rodney grabbed two handfuls of John's t-shirt and kissed him hard, in a weird parallel to the kiss he had planted on Carson all those years ago while Cadman was in his head. But this time Rodney did not pull back in horror, waiting for John to push him away. He didn't. Instead John's lips softened, melting into the kiss as Rodney's anger flowed away into bone-deep relief that should have surprised him but felt so right.

Eventually he did pull back, gazing into John's glazed eyes and barely noticing as Jeannie and Kaleb squeezed past them, leaving them alone together. For once, words seemed completely unnecessary and pointless. Actions worked better and Rodney let John guide them into the next kiss, feeling gentle hands cupping the back of his head and holding him. By the time they parted, all of Rodney's incredible intellect was so much mush and he let John guide them back upstairs to their shared room, and the large bed that they had shared as friends for the past two nights. There was nothing platonic in the way they undressed each other and pressed together, hands smoothing over naked skin, touching with the awe of new discovery.

When Rodney woke much later, the sun was shining through the cracks in the curtain. He pushed more snuggly against the warmth curled around his back, feeling the tickle of John's breath against the nape of his neck, offering silent thanks to his sister for giving him this. He closed his eyes. The world owed him another day, and he could think of no better way to spend it than with his family, and with his lover.

END


End file.
